1. On the Mystery of the Incarnation

    It's when we face for a moment
    the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
    the taint in our own selves, that awe
    cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart:
    not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
    to no innocent form
    but to this creature vainly sure
    it and no other god-like, God
    (out of compassion for our ugly
    failure to evolve) entrusts,
    as guest, as brother,
    the Word.

    Denise Levertov


    painting: newborn king by dan freed


    Posted by
    Labels: Christmas
    0

    Add a comment


  2. Gospel Reading: Matthew 1.18-25 (Joseph Takes Mary as His Wife)

    As a little boy, waiting eagerly for Christmas to come,
    I would often listen to a Christmas carol with these lines:
    Said the night wind to the little lamb,
do you see what I see?
    Way up in the sky, little lamb,
do you see what I see?

    What do we see? How do we see?

    I’d like to think that Advent invites to see anew,
    To see what we ordinarily take for granted, or what we don’t really want to see.
    After all, Advent is really a time preparing us to see Jesus at Christmas,
    to see not his physical birth that was 2000 years ago, or his coming in glory as the Risen Lord,
    but to see the goodness of Jesus in our lives today, and to celebrate this.

    When I arrived at the School of Theology and Ministry for the first time,
    I found myself seated with others in a circle and introducing ourselves.
    As we did so, I found myself looking at my fellow classmates:
    some of us, the lay faithful, preparing to become lay ministers;
    the rest of us, Jesuits, Redemptorists and Capuchins, preparing for ordination.

    As I looked at them, I asked myself,
    who or what am I really looking at?
    Am I looking at how different or similar they are to me?
    Am I looking at another who can be a friend?
    Or worse, am I screening out possible competitors?
    Is my gaze fixating him into the saint’s role because he appears holy,
    Or is my gaze discriminating her because her more progressive views?

    Do you, like me, sometimes find yourselves,
    looking at another only to label him as this or that kind of person?
    To be honest, we all do. It is part of human nature.

    St Joseph did that too. In today’s Gospel, he looked at Mary.
    He did not see the young girl he was engaged to
    and expecting to love, to marry, to have a family with.
    He saw instead a pregnant woman,
    whose pregnancy raised more confusion and questions
    His human gaze fixated her as unfaithful, ungodly, sinful.
    To Joseph, pregnant Mary was not worthy to be his wife.
    He felt it was better to quietly divorced her, put her aside, cast her out of his life.

    If we are honest, we are sometimes like Joseph:
    We look at others and cast them aside when they do not fit
    our expectations of who and what a person should be. So, we might
    distance ourselves from immigrants with foreign tongues and foreign ways,
    condemned the vagrants and beggars as good-for-nothing and do little to lift them up,
    debase the uneducated thinking they are fit only for demeaning work.

    Like Joseph, we would rather set ourselves apart from these lesser ones.
    Have nothing to do with them. Let them fend for themselves.
    They are they; I am me.
    We build fences between us because this makes for good neighbors.

    When we do this, however, we misuse the gift of vision, the gift to look.
    It is gift because our eyes are made to see another’s goodness,
    not her shortcomings or his sinfulness, as we are prone to do.
    To be made in God’s image and likeness is to see the world with God’s loving eyes.

    Joseph’s eyes could not see Mary as she really is: one created for God, one bearing Godself.
    Our eyes that fixate the lesser amongst us do not see them as they are: God’s own.
    What Joseph and we need is “to see anew.”

    Joseph learns to see again by listening to the angel in his dream.
    The angel speaks the truth of Mary’s pregnancy.
    Only then does Joseph see Mary anew:
    “Behold the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel.”

    What about us? Can we see God in the excluded, the discriminated, the oppressed? How so?
    I believe we can. We can by following Joseph’s example.
    He teaches us not to see what is before us but who is before us, one destined for God.
    Mary was not just a pregnant girl who seemed to have betrayed their engagement.
    She was pregnant with God.

    When we join Joseph and look at the excluded, the discriminated, the oppressed
    —the pregnant Marys in this world—we will find God-with-them.
    Like Mary, they bear God.
    They bear God in their pains and suffering, in their dreams and hopes.
    Like Mary, t    hey bear God to us, the Josephs with limited vision.

    The Gospel is silent about what Joseph said to Mary after the dream.
    All Matthew tells us is that Joseph took Mary into his home.
    Where words are silent, actions speak.

    Joseph speaks to Mary with his touch.
    He welcomes, affirms and honours her with his embrace.
    If we are moved by this intimacy Joseph has for Mary,
    it is because we know that touch speaks more than words
    of God’s compassion, forgiveness and restoration.

    Touch reminds us we are valuable and valued by another, and by God.
    Joseph’s vocabulary of touch, of caring for Mary, can also be the visible language
    of our looking at the lesser in our world.
    Our seeing them as God’s own finds expression
    when we reach out and touch them in respect and concern to life them up.

    Today’s Gospel’s challenges us with this reality
    as we continue our Christmas preparations:
    Advent is as good a time as any, if not the best time,
    to look more honestly and with greater compassion at:

    -- the homeless, God’s creation, on our streets.
    who we can bring warm meals and safe shelter to.

    --the sexually different, God’s beloved, who are family and friends,
    we can invite to feast, to sing, to laugh, to be one with us at the Christmas meal.

    -- the criminals, whom God forgives and forgives, locked away,
    but whom we can visit and clothe them with Christmas cheer.

    -- the poor and the unemployed, the lowly God will always lift up,
    who hope for a Christmas miracle that we can make real with our care and generosity.

    May be on this Fourth Sunday of Advent,
    you and I are being challenged to be like Joseph,
    to look at the Marys in our lives who ask us this Christmas:
    “Who am I really to you?” “Can you care for me, please?”


    Posted by
    Labels: Advent Breaking Open God's Word
    1

    View comments

  3. We have come to the final week of our Advent prayer slides for this year. We invite you in this final set of slides to enjoy the joyful expectation of Jesus' coming at Christmastime.


    As with previous prayer slides, begin by clicking on the arrow in the middle of the slide above. Then, enlarge the slide by clicking on the small rectangle to the right of the bar below the slides. Use the arrow keys on bottom left hand corner of the bar or your mouse to help you move through the slides.

    May this final set of prayer slides be your joy this final week of Advent.

    Posted by
    Labels: Advent
    0

    Add a comment

  4. This week we continue with our third set of slides to pray for Jesus' coming this Christmas.



    As before, you may begin your prayer by clicking on the arrow in the middle of the slide above. Then, enlarge the screen by clicking on the square box at the bottom right of the bar below the artwork. You may use the either the arrows on the bar (to your left) or your mouse to move through the prayer slides.

    May this time of prayer remind you how wondrous it is to be loved by God.


    Posted by
    Labels: Advent
    0

    Add a comment

  5. We continue with our second set of guided prayer slides our Advent contemplation, "To Jesus Through Mary."

    See more presentations by adriansj Upload your own PowerPoint presentations


    We invite you to begin praying by enlarging the screen. You can do this by clicking on the rectangle in the bar below the painting above. When you are in full screen mode, use either the arrows in the bar at the bottom of the full screen or your mouse help you move along.

    Take your time to pray. Follow God's Spirit that moves within you. May your time with the Lord remind you of God's Peace, Jesus.
    Posted by
    Labels: Advent
    0

    Add a comment


  6. Gospel Reading: Matthew 3:1-12 (Prepare the way of the Lord)




    Two roads diverged in a wood, and

    I—

    I took the one less traveled by,

    And that has made the difference.


    Do you remember a road that you walked down before,

    a road that made a difference in your life?


    Perhaps, it was

    a road in the woods you took -- like Robert Frost whose lines I quoted -– one that led to a surprising discovery.

    Or, it was a road to that first day at school or to a new workplace, and with it, a hopeful beginning.

    Or, it might have been the road to new friendship marked by love and laughter,

    or marriage, with the happiness of a new life shared.


    May be, you are looking ahead to 2011 and hoping to take new roads in your life:

    from suburban Burlington to exotic Singapore;

    from economic uncertainty to steady income.

    New roads from suffering to healing, from hatred to forgiveness,

    from a year that hasn't been great to the hope of a brighter new year in 2012.


    The road we take and walk on.

    The road that gets us from here to there.

    The road. This is the image today’s gospel invites us to ponder on.


    John the Baptist cries out,

    Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.

    This way, these paths are

    the road Jesus takes to meet us.

    They can also be our Advent road to Jesus.


    What kind of a road will this be?

    We have a clue in John the Baptist’s call to repentance.


    John the Baptist challenged all he called

    to repent, to have a change of heart,

    to walk the straight and narrow path that leads to Jesus

    who will come to baptize with the Holy Spirit.

    Jesus who is “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).

    He who is the long awaited Messiah,

    God's Word made flesh and splendor of the Father.

    Jesus who comes to save us

    and to bring us into God's marvelous light.


    John the Baptist’s message of repentance is difficult to hear;

    they confront; they challenge; they call his hearers to make their lives right.

    He calls them, and us, to nothing less than taking and walking the road less traveled to God.


    But his words are hope-filled.

    The road to Jesus is the road to peace.

    A peace in which opposites unite, differences are reconciled.

    As the Prophet Isaiah tells us in today's First Reading

    this is an extravagant peace where

    “the wolf and the lamb together eat,”

    “the leopard and the kid lie down side by side,”

    “the calf, the young lion and the little child play.”


    With three more weeks to go before Christmas,

    John the Baptist’s challenge is timely for all of us,

    and perhaps, necessary for some of us.

    He is inviting us to pause and to ask ourselves,

    “What is the quality of my Advent journey, my preparation for Christmas, the road I am taking to meet Jesus?


    Am I too fixated on shopping for presents and gifts?

    Am I too preoccupied with baking cookies and gathering ingredients for the Christmas meal?

    Am I simply wallowing in the feel-good Christmas lights and carols I see and hear?

    Or, am I not even bothered that Jesus comes to meet me this Christmas time?


    If we are honest, we might recognize in John the Baptist’ message God's voice:

    inviting us to change our lives,

    to take the road less traveled this Advent.


    How can we begin to walk this road?

    We can start by re-imaging Advent anew.

    More than preparing for Christmas festivities and merrymaking,

    this is the season of joyful expectation:

    the joyful expectation of coming home.


    To prepare the way for the Lord

    is to prepare for Jesus’ coming home,

    coming home to the one place God wants to be --

    with you and me, in us and among us.


    Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us, is coming home.

    He is coming home to us by doing something so inconceivable of God:

    by emptying himself of his majesty and might to become one like us, human.

    And Jesus does this by taking the road less traveled.


    And now, we are being invited to take a road less traveled to meet him.


    I believe all of us here look eagerly with hope to Christmas,

    to Jesus’ coming, to his radiant light dispelling the darkness in our lives.


    We can do this because we know Jesus has come,

    and we believe Jesus will come.

    We know and we believe because we experience Jesus in our everyday life:

    in our laughter as the goodness of life;

    in our tears as consoling comfort;

    in our pain as healing balm;

    in our mistakes as words and embrace of forgiveness.

    We have these experiences of Jesus through our family and friends.

    Indeed, these make our exclamation of reliving again Jesus' birth at Christmas a joyful song like Simeon's:

    “My eyes have seen the salvation of our God.”


    Now, if the gift we wake up to on Christmas morning

    as we're snuggled up in our warm beds, with snow falling around us and the first yawns of our family waking us up,

    is Jesus, God's most wondrous gift:

    is it not worth then for you and me

    to take a walk this Advent to Jesus by transforming our lives?

    And wouldn't our first steps be to take the road less traveled?






    photo by d l ennis


    This homily was preached earlier today at the Vigil Mass for the Second Sunday of Advent at St Malachy Parish, Burlington, Massachusetts.



    Posted by
    Labels: Advent Breaking Open God's Word
    0

    Add a comment

  7. Today we begin Advent, a time when Christians look forward in hope to Jesus' coming at Christmas. In these weeks of Christmas, I invite you to a time of prayer and reflection using prayer slides that will be uploaded to this blog each Sunday of Advent. Our theme for this year's prayer is "To Jesus Through Mary."

    Below you will find the slides for this First Sunday of Advent.


    To begin your prayer, click on the arrow in the middle of the prayer slide above. Then, click on the rightmost box at the bottom of the slide to enlarge the slide. Use the arrows on the left-hand side of the bar below the prayer slide to navigate yourself through the prayer.

    Do remember that this is your time with God in prayer. Allow God's Spirit to move you onward through the slides. If you find yourself pausing at a word, a phrase or an image, stay with this for awhile. God is meeting you there. Spend some time with God.

    May your prayer today be blessed and holy.


    Posted by
    Labels: Advent
    0

    Add a comment


  8. Gospel Reading: Luke 19:1-10 (Zacchaeus)


    Do you remember
    when your classmate or workmate became your best friend?
    when your date blossomed into the friend you married for life?
    when someone everybody disliked reached out and you responded in friendship?

    Perhaps, that moment happened over a meal:
    Mom’s packed lunch in the canteen;
    that first dinner with the in-laws;
    a doughnut and coffee at Starbucks.

    As you ate together, you probably let down your guard,
    became comfortable being yourselves,
    sharing more and more
    who you each really are, what you truly think and feel.
    Honestly. Acceptingly. Joyfully.

    Indeed, inviting someone to the table to eat with you
    can be that defining moment when
    a stranger becomes a friend,
    a face in the crowd becomes a name on our lips,
    a nobody becomes somebody we cherish.

    What we see here with eyes of faith is transformation:
    ordinary interaction becomes relationships that matter,
    friendships that love.

    This is the image Luke invites you and me to reflect on in today’s gospel.
    Jesus and Zacchaeus feasting together.
    They feast together
    not as rabbi and tax collector,
    not as holy and sinful,
    but as friends,
    as the Son of God in friendship with a son of man and woman.

    How does their friendship come to be?
    In Jesus inviting and Zacchaeus accepting.

    Jesus enters Jericho, into Zachaeus’everyday life.
    And meeting Zacchaeus there, Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ home
    Zacchaeus accepts, and Jesus comes and stays with him.

    Jesus enters; Jesus comes; Jesus stays.

    Isn’t this how Jesus also meets us in friendship?

    Entering into our lives
    into our laughter to laugh with us
    and into our grief to grieve with us?

    Coming into our lives
    to heal us in our suffering with life-giving words?
    to teach us when we are lost with his Godly life?

    Why does Jesus come in friendship
    to someone like Zacchaeus, much despised by the Jews for being a tax collector?
    to some like you and me who strive to be God’s holy people,
    yet disappoint God and ourselves with our less than holy human lives?

    Perhaps, he comes because he hears the truth
    of who God really is in his life and for our lives.

    We hear this same truth in the Book of Wisdom we read earlier:
    For you, God, love all things that are and loathe nothing you have made (Wisdom 11: 24).

    I believe this is the reason Jesus reaches out in friendship:
    to remind us that God made us good and to help us live the good life with God.

    This is the reason Jesus enters and comes,
    but, more importantly, the reason he stays with us.
    Jesus stays with us in God’s love…
    in God’s love that seeks us out in our sinfulness
    that embraces back us, again and again, into in his forgiving love,
    that brings us home into his divine life.

    Here, we are at home:
    we have entered into God’s home; we have come into God’s presence.
    As we enter and come to Mass today,
    we too are taking those steps Jesus makes in forging friendship.
    With our steps, we enter into God’s friendship through Jesus;
    we come to God in Jesus’ Spirit.

    Zaccaheus took these steps too.
    Hearing Jesus’ invitation, he welcomed Jesus’ friendship.
    Jesus with him; Jesus transforming him; Jesus helping him to repent and save his life.
    This is the Good News we hear today.

    But the real miracle Luke wants us to focus on is:
    Zacchaeus staying in Jesus’ company, as Jesus stayed with him.

    In a few moments, we will gather around the altar.
    Jesus invites us to this altar, his table of plenty,
    to this our Eucharist together.

    Like Zachaeus, we come, saint and sinner alike.
    We come because we believe Jesus will feed us who hunger and thirst with his friendship

    We come because we hear Jesus say:
    I have entered your life, called you by name for you are mine;
    I have come so you might have life and have it to the full;
    be not afraid, I am with you always, staying close beside you.

    And today, we might also hear him say, But, you, will you stay with me too?




    This is a Sunday homily I delivered as a requirement for my class in liturgical preaching.


    artwork: zacchaeus being called down from the tree by william hole






    Posted by
    Labels: Breaking Open God's Word
    0

    Add a comment


  9. Gospel Reading: Luke 11.37-41 (The Pharisee who ritually cleans)


    Imagine an apple
    pregnant with juice that satisfies.
    You bite into it.
    But its rotting interior disgusts you.

    Imagine a coloured vessel
    standing in the morning sunlight: it shimmers; it sparkles; it shines.
    Enchanted, you reach for it.
    But its plastic feel saddens you.

    Imagine a friend
    who says: “I care for you; I am here for you; I love you; you are my friend.”
    You get to know her better.
    Then, you discover her actions don’t always match her words.
    And, you feel cheated. (I would too.)

    An apple; a vessel; a friend.
    We value each of these
    in different ways, for different reasons.
    But in our eyes, we behold each of them beautiful.

    Sometimes however they disappoint us:
    they are less than beautiful; they are ugly.

    I‘d like to believe Jesus has such an experience
    when he beholds the Pharisee in today’s Gospel.

    God created the Pharisee.
    In his image and likeness, God created him good.
    In God’s eyes, he is beautiful.

    However, when Pharisee ritually cleans the cup and dish,
    but neglects to cleans out the plunder and evil in their hearts,
    he disfigures his beauty.

    Even though he observes God’s Law,
    and appears good and holy,
    his heart remains dark and ugly.
    His action diminishes the beauty of God in him.

    Hypocrisy is his sin.
    It scars, it stains, it soils his beauty.
    This saddens Jesus.
    It disappoints him.
    It angers him
    because the Pharisee forgets who he really is: God’s beloved
    who is beautiful in God’s eyes,
    and who is called to see beauty in others.

    Jesus confronts the Pharisee.
    But he also confronts you and me right here, right now…
    we who are sometimes as hypocritical as the Pharisees, are we not?

    We say we are Christians
    but our actions are sometimes not Chris-like:
    we do not care for the stranger;
    we refuse to forgive our enemies.

    We confess we believe in God
    but often we put our trust and hope in other gods:
    idol gods we call riches, fame and honour.

    We proclaim that we are God’s people,
    redeemed and part of God’s kingdom
    but we exclude others from it:
    we oppress the lesser; we discriminate the different; we condemned the sinful.

    Today, Jesus challenges us.
    He is asking: are you who proclaim God’s Kingdom,
    God’s saving action of Peace, Justice and Love, to one and all,
    are you making this Good News alive with your lips only,
    or with your heart too?

    Jesus’ challenge is harsh.
    It is because he wants us to pause, to step back and to honestly examine
    the quality of how we are living our humanity:
    are we doing this beautifully
    in God, with God and for God and all his peoples?

    Jesus does this because he loves and cares for us:
    he wants us to mend our ways and to become better persons,
    people who can live beautiful lives for ourselves and others.

    As we come to the Eucharist,
    I wonder how you and I will answer Jesus’ question:
    Do your words and actions match your heart?



    This is a homily I prepared and preached as part of my class in liturgical preaching.



    photo: mother and child by adsj (new york; june 2010)





    Posted by
    Labels: Breaking Open God's Word
    0

    Add a comment


  10. Gospel Reading: Luke 8: 4-15 (Parable of the Sower)


    Sssh.
    Can you hear it?
    Do you hear God’s voice?
    Will you really listen to God’s Word in your life?
    I believe Jesus is asking us these questions at this time and in this place.

    In the parable we read,
    Jesus tells us that God is the sower, scattering seeds.
    These seeds promise life.
    They are God’s Word. Indeed, they promise life to the full.
    This is the Good News Jesus preaches to us.

    We hear God’s Good News often.
    In scripture and at Mass. At home and in our religious communities.
    In our theological studies and through our friends.
    Yes, we are familiar with God’s message.

    Sadly, we don’t always receive God’s Word well,
    make God's Word fully part of of our lives,
    or share God's Word with others joyfully.

    Jesus tells us we don’t do this because we might be
    too distracted by worldly attractions,
    too fixated with our sinfulness,
    too intoxicated with our addictions.

    And, if you and I are honest,
    we would confess that we sometimes don’t want to hear God’s voice.
    We would rather hear our voice.
    We want to fall in love with our voice and to follow it.
    In these moments, our voices proudly and loudly say,
    “Thanks, God, but no thanks. It’s not about you. It’s about, me, I and myself.”

    And, isn’t it deliciously satisfying to hear our own voices?
    I know it is. For a while at least.
    Then, do you like me find life lacking, empty, despairing?

    Jesus reminds us today that God’s Word gives us life, life to the full.
    It will bear fruit a hundred fold in our lives, if we but let it.

    How can we do this? By hearing and listening to God.

    But, aren’t you and I already doing this in our lives?

    When you care for another in pain, aren’t you your brother’s keeper?
    When you bring hope to one in despair, one in blindness, don’t you free your sister, lift her up, help her see again.
    And, when we make sacrifices, forgive our enemies, restore life to others, are we not picking up our crosses and following Jesus?

    Yes, we do hear God’s Word.
    We do let God's Word dwell in us.
    We do share God's Word with others.

    Jesus says, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
    So, what should we be really hearing from God today?

    Perhaps, this:
    We can hear God’s word.
    We can because we are, as the psalmist says, wonderfully made for God.

    We were created, filled with God’s grace.
    God’s grace will always help us hear God’s Word.
    God’s grace will open us up to let God Word bear fruit a hundred fold
    in you and me, and in everyone we share God’s message of life with.
    Yes, this is Good News.

    But there’s even better Good News.
    If we have truly listened to Jesus in today’s parable,
    we might have heard God really saying these life-giving words to us:
    I know you can
    I hope you do
    I believe you will.






    This is a homily for daily Mass that I prepared as part of my class in liturgical preaching this semester.


    photo: eager stillness broods over the realm of boyhood dreams by ian francisco

    Posted by
    Labels: Breaking Open God's Word
    2

    View comments

"Bukas Palad"
"Bukas Palad"
is Filipino for open palms
Greetings!
Greetings!
Peace and welcome, dear friend.
I hope you will find in these posts something that speaks to you of the God who loves us all and who always holds us in the palm of his hand. Blessings!
The Liturgical Calendar / Year C
The Liturgical Calendar / Year C
Faith & Spirituality
Faith & Spirituality
Tagged as...
Tagged as...
Blog Archive
Blog Archive
Fall in Love, Stay in Love
Fall in Love, Stay in Love

"Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute way final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything."

Pedro Arrupe, sj, Superior General, 1965 - 1983

About Me
About Me
My Photo
is a 50something Catholic who resides in Singapore and works for the Church. He is a priest of the Roman Catholic Church.
Disclaimer
Disclaimer
©adrian.danker.sj, 2006-2018

The views I express in these pages are personal. They do not speak for the Society of Jesus or the Catholic Church.
Loading